April 9, 2012

Blood Possession Excerpts To Whet Your Appetite

I just finished reading Blood
Possession, Tessa Dawn’s third novel in her Blood Curse series. If I could give 10+ stars to this novel, I
would. My heart is so full that I need to
quiet my thoughts for a bit in order to write a review.

I don’t normally do this, but
while I compose myself and since this series is one of my favorites, I’m going
to post an explanation of what the Blood Curse is and the Prologue to whet your
appetite. Both can be found on Tessa’s
website.

The Blood Curse

In 800 BC, Prince Jadon and Prince
Jaegar Demir were banished from their Romanian homeland after being cursed by a
ghostly apparition: the reincarnated
Blood of their numerous, female victims.

They belonged to an ancient
society that had sacrificed its females to the point of extinction, and the
punishment was severe:

They were forced to roam the earth
in darkness as creatures of the night. They were condemned to feed on the blood
of the innocent and stripped of their ability to produce female offspring. They
were damned to father twin sons by human hosts who would die wretchedly upon
giving birth; and the first born of the first set would forever be required as
a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of their forefathers.

Staggered by the enormity of The Curse, Prince Jadon, whose own
hands had never shed blood, begged his accuser for leniency and received four small mercies -- four exceptions
to the curse that would apply to his house and his descendants, alone.

§Though still creatures of the
night, they would be allowed to walk in the sun.

§Though still required to live on
blood, they would not be forced to take the lives of the innocent.

§While still incapable of producing
female offspring, they would be given one
opportunity and thirty-days to obtain a mate -- a human female, chosen
by the gods -- following a sign that appeared in the heavens.

§While still required to sacrifice
a first born son, their twins would be born as one child of darkness and one
child of light, allowing them to sacrifice the former while keeping the latter
to carry on their race.

And so...

Forever banished from their
homeland in the Transylvanian mountains of Eastern Europe, the descendants of
Jaegar and the descendants of Jadon became the Vampyr of legend: roaming the
earth, ruling the elements, living on the blood of others...forever bound by an
ancient curse.

They were brothers of the same
species, separated only by degrees of light and shadow.

Blood Possession Prologue 800 BC

“Napolean,
run!”

The
ten-year-old child stumbled backward, his eyes wide with fright. His father’s
commanding voice shook him to his core.

“Run,
son, go quickly!”

“No,
Father. I don’t want to leave you! Father, please—”

“Go
now!” Sebastian Mondragon clutched his stomach and fell to the ground. His
hands and fingers curled into two twisted balls, and his body contorted in an
agonizing spasm. The transformation had begun. Writhing in pain, the once
fearless warrior panted the warning a third time. “Napolean…son…please, run!
Hide!”

Napolean
heard his father’s words as if from a distance. He wanted to flee, but he was
frozen in place. Mesmerized by the horror that surrounded him, he swallowed
hard and simply watched as the thick, inky fog swirled around his father’s
writhing body. Long, skeletal fingers with hooked claws and knobby knuckles
clutched at his father’s throat, raked deep gashes along his chest, and dug
mercilessly toward his innards. Blood seeped from Sebastian’s mouth as,
inexplicably, his canine teeth began to grow, assuming the shape of—

Fangs.

But it
was his father’s unrelenting cries of agony that finally forced Napolean’s
retreat.

Napolean
ran like he had never run before, his little heart beating furiously in his
chest, the need for air burning his lungs. He weaved through the morbid
courtyard, dodging fallen bodies and clasping his hands to his ears to block
out the endless wails. All around him, males fell to the ground, cursed, and
moaned. Some died immediately from the shock…or pain. Others drew their swords
from their scabbards and took their own lives. Still others succumbed to the
brutal torture, helpless as the darkness embodied them.

They
were being punished.

Changed.

Transformed
into an aberration of nature by the ghostly spirits of their victims.

The
Blood Curse was upon them.

Napolean
focused his eyes straight ahead, never losing sight of his destination: the
imperial castle, a would-be fortress. He and his friends had hidden there so
many times in the past, playing hide-and-seek, avoiding angry parents, hoping
to catch a glimpse of a member of the royal family. Napolean knew the grounds
like the back of his hands, and so he pressed on, desperate yet determined to
get there, resigned to hide as his father had bid him.

At
last, he arrived at the familiar gray castle gate.

He
scurried into a small hole beneath the fortified wall and drew himself into a
tight little ball. He tried to become invisible. Although he could no longer
see the carnage in the village, the haunting cries continued to batter his ears
like thunder against a stormy sky.

Napolean
shook, remembering the moment Prince Jadon had emerged from the castle, his
dark onyx eyes glazed with fear. He had gathered his loyalists to his side to
explain the pronouncement—their punishment—what was soon to become a new way of
life.

With so
little time to prepare his men, Jadon had tried the best he could. Napolean had
understood none of it, save one thing: The followers of Jadon needed to pledge
their loyalty to the twin monarch as quickly as possible, before the
transformation began, or they would meet a much worse fate.

Though
Napolean’s father had served for years in the royal one’s secret guard,
fighting to defeat the ever growing armies of Prince Jaegar, Napolean had been
too young to join. Consequently, it had been imperative that he formally align
himself with the right
twin—for those who followed Jaegar
were to receive no mercy.

And so,
like all of the others, Napolean had knelt to kiss Prince Jadon’s ring—recited
the sacred pledge of loyalty before it was too late—and braced himself against
what was to come…

Napolean
shivered, bringing his attention back to the present moment.

He
wanted to be brave, but fearful tears stung his eyes.

Then
all at once, he heard cruel, disembodied laughter, the sound coming closer and
closer, assaulting his ears.

“No.
No. No,” he whimpered, drawing further into the hollow cavity for protection,
quivering so hard his bones rattled in his skin.

The fog
swirled into a miniature cyclone, rose up from the ground, and dipped low as if
it had eyes that could see…

Him.

Hiding.

“You
think to escape, child?” the ghostly aberration hissed, laughter ricocheting
through the small cavity. Flames exploded from the center of the darkness.
“Die, little one! And be reborn the monster that you are!”

Napolean
screamed so loud the sound became a cosmic explosion in his ears, yet the fog
kept coming. It wrapped itself around his meager body, entered his mouth, and
descended into his chest.

He
heard his own shouting as if it belonged to someone else, someone wretched and
pitiable. He clawed at his skin, hoping to tear it from his body. He bit
through his hand and pounded the ground. He writhed, thrashed, and tried to
crawl away, but nothing stopped the assault.

Dear
Celestial Gods!

He
prayed for death, but it wouldn’t come.

How
much time had passed before the agony subsided, he had no idea. Had it been
minutes? Hours? Perhaps days? It could have been a lifetime for all he’d
endured before it had ceased…and the craving had begun.

A
gnawing, all-consuming, primal thirst.

For
blood.

It was
the craving that had brought him out of the hole, crawling along the ground
like an animal, stumbling through the darkness, searching for his father.

Now, as
bitter tears stung his eyes, he absently wiped them away, only to find smears
of blood on his hand.

Great
goddess Andromeda, what had he become?

Finally
reaching the village square, he staggered to a halt beside an aged stone well.
As his vision adjusted to the darkness, he caught a shadow out of the corner of
his eye: No, it couldn’t be.

Please
gods, no!

The
grisly scene unfolded in slow motion as Jaegar Demir, the evil prince, hunkered
over his father’s body. The prince’s eyes were wild with insanity as he bent to
Sebastian’s throat, tore into the flesh—as if it were mere parchment—and drank
his fill of…blood. Napolean could neither move nor turn away as the macabre
scene unfolded before him. As the evil prince drained his father’s already
gored and tattered body of life.

And
then…

Horrified,
trembling, and defeated, Napolean watched like a coward as Prince Jaegar
withdrew his sword and took his father’s head.

When at
last the terror released him, he fisted his hands and howled at the heavens.

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My Intent

I started "Smitten with Bad Boy Heroes" with hope of bringing those of us who love the bad boys we meet in novels together to express our opinions. Since my favourite genres are Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy, most of what's here will be reviews of novels in that genre. However, you may see some Contemporary Romance as well. I strive only to share with other readers the amazing stories I've read from wonderful and talented authors. My reviews are based on my opinion alone and everything on this blog is written entirely for my love and affection of books. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I do and I hope you enjoy my blog!